(CNN) - With time running out and the final debate next week on foreign policy, Tuesday night's showdown was the last best chance for President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney to win on the major issue of the campaign - the economy.

The contentious debate in New York featured pointed personal and political attacks by both men standing within arm's length of each other.

CNN Poll: Nearly half say Obama won showdown
Give a slight edge to President Barack Obama. Forty-six percent of voters who watched Tuesday night's presidential debate said that the president won the showdown, according to a CNN/ORC International nationwide poll conducted right after Tuesday night's faceoff here at Hofstra University on New York's Long Island. Thirty-nine percent questioned said Republican nominee Mitt Romney did the better job.

CNN: 'Binders full of women' raises brows
Did Mitt Romney really request that as governor of Massachusetts, he be brought "whole binders full of women?" It was his response to a question – on gender pay inequality – which turned heads and started fingers tapping on keyboards. Before the debate was over, there was a Twitter hashtag, a blog, a series of memes, and a Facebook page with over 100,000 fans. The phrase was the third-fastest rising search on Google during the debate.

(CNN) - President Barack Obama said he identified the September 11 assault on the U.S. Consulate in Libya as a terrorist attack within a day; former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said it took two weeks.

The claim: "The day after the attack, governor, I stood in the Rose Garden and I told the American people in the world that we are going to find out exactly what happened," Obama said. "That this was an act of terror and I also said that we're going to hunt down those who committed this crime."

(CNN) - The campaigns of President Barack Obama and GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney were quick to spin their version of Tuesday's debate, with both campaigns arguing their candidate came out on top.

The surrogates, in fact, started circulating the designated "spin room" before the candidates took to the podium, setting expectations.FULL POST

(CNN) - President Barack Obama took ultimate responsibility on Tuesday for issues around last month's terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

"I am ultimately responsible for what's taking place there because these are my folks, and I'm the one who has to greet those coffins when they come home," Obama said during a debate with Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney in New York.

Honk Kong (CNNMoney) - President Obama and Mitt Romney each used their second presidential debate to talk tough on China.

Romney pledged that he would label China as a currency manipulator on his first day in office - a promise he frequently works into his campaign speeches. And he accused China of "stealing" designs, patents and technology pioneered by U.S. companies.